Berusaiyu no Bara/The Rose of Versailles
 

Berusaiyu no Bara/The Rose of Versailles, one of the manga and anime that was instant hit. Anime which ran between 1979 to 1980, and manga that ran between 1972-1974.

What made me to make this topic? I just want to see GFF members remember how great The Rose of Versailles is and discuss about it.

Heh.. I would've enjoyed it if wasn't for those stupid .mkv groups that make it .mkv. But whatever. I'll just wait for a dvd release.

I was at Montreal for couple days, and I found the whole DVD set. [Only 20.00 =D] it was possibly best anime purchase ever.

A bootleg release then I guess? As far as I know know there aren't any english subbed dvds.

It wasn't english subbed. =O When I played it on DVD it was full Japanese... same with the cover... IDK, maybe it is FAKE?!:cussing:

Hmm... I'm not an expert, but MKV is, as far as I know, a "container format". Basically the file can contain more than one audio channel (eg. Jap and Eng) and also subtitles. Players which recognize the format correctly should give the option of switching on the subtitles and/or choosing audio format. I usually use MediaPlayer Classic or, if the file is really misbehaving, VLC. You might be able to play the file through Windows Media Player through some DirectShow filter, but it might not pick up the subtitles/extra audio. I know that the copy I got (and which I watched only a couple of episodes of, I got it for a teacher of mine I liked) was Japanese with English subtitles.

Berusaiyu no Bara was shown on Italian TV, and I kind of liked it. I got turned off by the female lead (hey, I was young at the time!) and the fact that it was quite melodramatic (again, not something I liked when I was younger). Nowadays I know that I'm an imbecile, because it would be exactly one of the things I'd like to watch - I love history, especially the French Revolution, and there is, as far as I know, quite a lot of political intrigue going on.* I did watch the ending, funnily enough - it was on its last rerun on TV, and I didn't know it was the last episode. Still, one of these days I'm going to watch it, hopefully.

All I can say is give it a try. Don't be put off by the art, which to most people might appear dated. From the little I've seen it's a very good series which should be better known.

* This is from stuff my teacher told me, and from websites...

Indeed, the artwork of this anime and manga can't be compared with artwork nowdays. Just look at Galaxy Express 999, he had some sort of "mediocre" artwork, but it was considered as one of the best anime/manga of all the time.

Yes, I was disgusted with the lead character. How it is she, acting as he. Indeed, things that disgusted me even more was, that females at balls were turned on by her =O. Of course, I seen this first time when I was like 7. [I perfered Galaxy Express999 more =D]

I've not seen it yet, but a close friend of mine recently recommended it, and it sounds great. I'm definitely planning to watch this soon, but I don't have much to say for now except "sounds interesting".

I might have not made myself clear, or I have misunderstood your last post, Taegueki ^^;. I wasn't disgusted by Oscar when I was young... I just didn't like to "cheer for" a female companion in anime. I remember watching the first episode when I was young, where the reason why she dressed and acted as a man was explained, so I wasn't too put off by that aspect. Rather I think I merely thought "Female character = girly stuff" and went back to watching Saint Seiya, Robotech and other shonen stuff ^^;.

I do still have some problems with Oscar (the character, that is), but I don't want to go into them now for fear of spoiling things for those who want to watch it and because, not having watched the whole anime, I don't want to say something stupid ^^;.

Incidentally, I remember a little of Galaxy Express. I used to watch it on Italian TV, but I didn't watch it religiously and couldn't understand anything. I don't have too many memories of it, except that it depressed me a little, that there was this boy and a blonde lady wearing a coat and a fur hat, and that it had a beautiful (Italian) OP song. I can't remember what happened during a typical episode, though... I'd like to watch it again, though. I just don't want to watch all of the rest of Matsumoto's works, since from what I hear most of his works are set in the same universe and therefore interconnect to a certain degree. I have a very short attention span, so the less "extra" stuff to watch, the better ^^;.

Well, Galaxy Express is supposted to be depressing. Well, in my opinion it is, since it is about people are becoming "machine people", and I guess it is pretty sad since they loose their warmth in their feeling...(?)

Well, Oscar was forced to act like a man wasn't she... well, to think of it, it would be pretty weird/sick to act your opposite gender, and your gender adores you...

Yeah, she was forced :). I agree that the fact that every young woman was crazy about Oscar was somewhat... well... strange, let's leave it at that (I don't want to offend anybody). I don't remember if it was toned down a little in the Italian dub I watched, though... there's a tendency to consider anime as something for children even in Italy (at least by the TV channels), so I would expect it was.

Also, I don't think it was generally known that Oscar was a woman, right? I think most courtiers thought she was male (she certainly was 'handsome' in a masculine way, not particularly pretty though).

A few years ago I was obsessed with either reading or watching this series, whichever was easier to do. Turns out, I couldn't really do either, since at the time I was looking around I couldn't find any fansubs or scanlations. But after visiting Little Tokyo yesterday and seeing this thread, I think I may go looking for it again. If anyone has links to the fansubbing group/s (.mkv format is fine), that would be nice.

The whole male/female thing, combined with the art style, has always reminded me of Utena.

It's a question of preference, you know. I for one much prefer the look of 70s/80s anime over the more perfect look of contemporary works.

Live-eviL completed Rose of Versailles quite a while ago. L-E's version is also the only one I've seen around and it's not .mkv; additionally it will probably never be released on DVD in the US so I have no idea what chato is going on about.

Ah right, I still remembered correctly then :).

@ Arkhangelsk: I seem to remember reading somewhere that Utena was inspired in some small degree by BeruBara, at least as far as the male/female thing, as you rightly say :). I've never seen Utena though, so I can't really comment.

Lol, there is this one . Sadly not US release :shh: (Location: France...????)
http://cgi.ebay.ca/LADY-OSCAR-Lintegrale-2-coffrets-DVD-NEUFS_W0QQitemZ250020947080QQihZ015QQcategoryZ8707 4QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem